America’s adults have abandoned an alarming number of adolescents to television or the streets at a crucial juncture in their lives, raising odds that millions will be “lifelong casualties” of neglect, a study released Thursday warned.
The Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development urged sweeping initiatives involving parents, government, schools, the media and other institutions to lavish adult supervision and guidance on youngsters aged 10 to 14.
Without it, the panel warned, as many as half of all youngsters face an increased risk of lurching from crisis to crisis as they grow into adulthood, needlessly exposing them to problems such as AIDS, drug and alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy and violence.
The blue-ribbon panel, made up of 27 national leaders ranging from former Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis to ABC-TV’s Ted Koppel, said too many children of middle-school age are missing what they crave most: attention from caring adults and “the perception of meaningful opportunities in society.”
The report, “Great Transitions: Preparing Adolescents for a New Century,” paints a picture of middle-school life as lonely and fraught with temptations and misinformation.
The document offers no original research, but combines 10 years worth of study from educators, Carnegie projects, child-development specialists and grass-roots programmers across the nation.
The report noted that one-third of 13-year-olds say they use illicit drugs, 60 percent of sexually experienced girls 13 and younger say they’ve had involuntary sexual intercourse, and only 50 percent of parents report moderate involvement in their child’s secondary education.
In a national conference call with reporters on Thursday, the study’s authors said that councils should form on a local level to involve parents, church groups, middle schools, businesses, and social groups like the YMCA and Boys’ Clubs of America, so that constructive, coordinated after-school programs can be developed.
“There has been a tendency for teens to grow up more alone than they did within the previous generation,” said David Hamburg, president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. “They spend more time in front of the TV, more time on the streets, more time with children in their peer group.”
By mid-adolescence, the report notes, children have watched about 15,000 hours of television, more time than they have spent with teachers, friends or parents.
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The report calls on television and film industry executives to acknowledge the sway they hold over children in this age group, and to develop more constructive programming.
The report also urges parents to remain engaged with the schools of their children, something it contends fewer and fewer do as youngsters grow older.
And the report also warns of the health hazards associated with the age group.
About one in five teens lives in poverty, it states, noting that they are at greatest risk for depression, substance abuse and other social ills.
“Altogether, nearly half of American adolescents are at high or moderate risk of seriously damaging their life chances,” the report said. “The damage may be near-term and vivid, or it may be delayed, like a time bomb set in youth.”
Northwestern University psychology professor Ian Gotlib said said the report was a reasonable assessment.
“We know that by the time kids are 18 years old, 20 to 25 percent of them have had at least one episode of diagnosable depression,” he said.
“So when you throw in the risk of drug abuse, teenage pregnancy or other problems, it doesn’t surprise me that number could double.”
“It sounds like this is a wakeup call,” Gotlib said. “I don’t know if America should be alarmed, but clearly there is an increasing incidence of distress in younger generations.”